I'm wondering how people feel about using carbon fiber trekking poles with shelters that use them. Aside the added benefits of less weight and not being lightening rods, are there any down sides to using them with your shelter? Are you more at risk to break a pole in high winds or with a super taught pitch with CF poles? In other words, are the stresses put on carbon fiber poles by a shelter something that increases their likelihood of breaking after already suffering the abuses of the trail? I hear about carbon fiber poles breaking 10X more than aluminum and they seem to break in the situation of minor trail nicks followed by a high stress incident.

If you break a cf while using it with a shelter then you are like having bigger issues than just your poles. The strength of a collapsed or partially collapsed pole is much stronger than other parts of the system like stakes, guy lines and tarps. Most cf poles get broken by being stepped on or by putting the tip in a crack and pushing forward.

I guess I'm more so referring to the stresses put on them by a shelter (perhaps similar to a "prolonged" fall catch with the pole...if you will) adding to their likelihood of breaking at any point in time...even though I did mention concern for high winds and a taught pitch being a possible cause for breakage.

Either way, it's sounding like the ones that I'm looking at, this issue should be nonexistent.

"The BD alpine carbon poles are very burly, I wouldn't worry about them being a weak point in your shelter."

+ 1

The BD Alpine Carbon Cork poles are ultra beefy for a carbon pole. Short of severe user error (ie. have no overlap between sections), you're extremely safe with these. I'd suggest going with a lighter pole personal. Locus Gear has some new flick lock poles coming out that weigh ~12oz (vs. 16oz for the BD ACC poles) which should be a nice compromise between the gossamer gear LT4's and something beefy but heavy like the BD ACC's.

http://locusgear.com/products/trekking-pole/cp2

The GG LT4's are great for holding up a shelter too. I've snapped a couple during off-trail mis-haps, but I continue to use them because they are so much nicer to hike with and short of me landing on them, they hold up just fine. I would like flick locks though and I can see the benefit of a 10-12oz set of poles for off-trail/snow use.